The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969.[1] It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Department which, along with the Oregon State Highway Commission, was created by an act of the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1913.[2] It works closely with the five member Oregon Transportation Commission (the modern name of the Highway Commission) in managing the state's transportation systems.

The Oregon Transportation Commission, formerly the Oregon State Highway Commission, is a five-member governor-appointed government agency that manages the state highways and other transportation in the U.S. state of Oregon, in conjunction with the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The new commissioners held their first meeting on March 6, and the commission was then known as the Oregon Highway Division. As Oregon's transportation needs started to grow the division expanded, and in 1919 it employed their first State Bridge Engineer, Conde McCullough.

By 1920 Oregon had 620 miles (998 km) of paved roads and 297.2 miles (478.3 km) of plank roads for a population of 783,389, and by 1932 the work that had been started on the Oregon Coast Highway (also known as U.S. Route 101) in 1914 was completed, except for five bridges, which meant greater responsibility for the division. This work was complete when the construction of the bridges over the Yaquina, Alsea, Siuslaw, and Umpqua rivers and Coos Bay were completed, closing the last gaps on the highway. By 1940, the highway division was managing more than 7,000 miles (11,300 km) of state, market and country roads in Oregon, with nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 km) being hard surfaced.

Several unusual events occurred in the department's history. In 1958, the division changed its slogan to the unintentionally funny "Oregon Freeways...Symbol of 2nd Century Progress"[3] and in 1967 ODOT celebrated its 50th anniversary, even though it was by then fifty-four years old. On November 12, 1970, the department gained notoriety after they attempted to dispose of a rotting beached sperm whale by using half-a-ton of dynamite to blast it off the beach, as one might remove a boulder. They were given responsibility for this task because Oregon beaches were designated as highways when the division was initially formed. This became known as the exploding whale incident.